Abstract

The Federal Government and AIDS—What Each Agency Can Do for You By Kellyn Betts its is no central place to get all the information the government has compiled on AIDS," says Elaine Baldwin, deputy director of MAID, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Things are happening so fast we have a hard time keeping up with whatever facet of the disease we happen to be focusing on at any given time. There is nothing on AIDS you can do and not update it," she adds. MAID is one of the 21 Public Health Service (PHS) agencies and subagencies that receives federal funding for AIDS re¬ search and activities. It is the principal health agency of the federal government and the largest public health program in the world. In 1987 the PHS received $494,075,000 for AIDS research and em¬ ployed 743 full-time equivalent workers to combat the disease. The organization has appropriated $791,331,000 for AIDS in 1988 and hopes to have 1,000 full-time equivalent workers implementing its AIDS projects. The PHS is composed of five agencies the National Institutes of Health (NIH) the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the Health Resources and Services Ad¬ ministration (HRSA); the